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07/08/12 - Ascent to Lake Angeles

We made it! After long hard training, an arduous assault and a great deal of procrastination and whining, we made it all the way up to Lake Angeles, and it was beautiful. The trail is clear, though there is still snow on much of the bowl surrounding the lake. The lower trilliums are gone, but they are now all over the place up by the lake.

The lake is still much too cold for us to go swimming, or so we believe. We considered actually sticking our toes in, but chickened out. Maybe we'll try next time, or the next, but, for us Kalebergs, Lake Angeles is in season.

Snow on the mountains at Lake Angeles

Another view of the lake

Driftwood at the lake

The little island

A trillium

A nest, a vein, a conclave, a ??? of trilliums

The trail through the woods

Keywords: lake angeles, trillium, kale

05/14/12 - Russian Easter

Well, it wasn't actually Russian Easter, at least not by the old calendar or the new calendar, but we go with the Kaleberg calendar. We rounded up all the usual Russian goodies:
  • our own home made pork, garlic & carroway seed sausage
  • buckwheat blini pancakes saturated with butter and more butter
  • Trotsky's Bane - tequila shooters w/tabikko
  • pelmeni dumplings stuffed with pork, beef & dill
  • Enemies of the Czar - Reuben sandwiches with corned beef, swiss cheese and Russian dressing
There was also lots of champagne, which is French, and a French assault on Mother Russia, represented by a baked Alaska, foiled by a scorched earth policy of flaming cognac.

If you want to try any of these dishes in your own home, see our Russian Easter recipes page.

Moscow - portrayed by a brownie and coffee ice cream based Baked Alaska - prepared for its defense against the Monster Napoleon

Champagne in the snow, an old Russian theme

You can see the weird glow of Trotsky's Bane.

Keywords: recipe, russian easter, kale, alaska

04/28/12 - Spring Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

It's starting to look like spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. Westwind Farm has their first asparagus along with potatoes, winter squash and their wonderful eggs. Johnston Farms is back with fresh coriander, squashes, braising mix, sunchokes, potatoes and other goodies. The Korean garlic lady has her garlic and greens, and Nash Huber's stand is loaded with a broad variety of raabs - flowering kales, cabbages and so on. In other words, the long winter is over.

Johnston Farms

Westwind Farms asparagus - We bought most of these, but there will be more next week.

Nash Huber's stand

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, spring, westwind farm, garlic lady, kale

03/19/12 - Munchings and Crunchings

We haven't been doing all that much, but we have been eating well. On the right is a member of the rapidly vanishing species of Parker House buffalo burgers. That's a Parker House roll, a southern specialty made with butter, lard and milk, named for a downtown Boston hotel. Inside, is a good, solid buffalo burger, melted New Moon cheese, kosher dill pickle slices, walla walla sweet onion, some out of season tomato and a healthy dollop of our home brew Kaleberg Ketchup.

The last of its kind

Chicken shishkabob without the shish, or is it without the kabob?
 On the left is one of our favorite dishes, grilled chunks of chicken thigh marinated in lemon, olive oil, oregano, garlic and sumac. Sumac is a tart eastern Mediterranean spice and brings out the best in the lemon. We usually marinate the meat overnight, then grill it in one of those little wire baskets. In keeping with the theme, we also grill up some onions and red peppers, so we have all the ingredients of a lovely chicken kabob without having to put everything on skewers.

Keywords: food, kale

03/10/12 - Joule in Wallingford - Our Kaleberg Review

We have been trying new restaurants, but we haven't been updating our reviews online. Joule is one of our great new finds. The chef, Rachel Yang, was originally at Coupage, but she's opened her own place in Wallingford, and it is wonderful. The cooking is based on solid Korean cuisine, but with an eclectic touch, following the seasons and borrowing freely. This means beef shortribs and tamarind lamb shanks, savory mochis and chickpea agnolotti, and a broad range of local vegetables including our Kaleberg favorites like kale, broccoli rabe and fennel. For more, read our glowing review.

The restaurant towards dusk

Keywords: restaurants, reviews, seattle, kale

03/09/12 - Volvelleteer Updates

We've done a few updates to our volvelle making program Volvelleteer. We've fixed a few bugs and cleaned up the interactions. It also works better with more modern Windows systems. Volvelles are those pairs of rotating cardboard disks, one with little windows in it that show a variety of information as you turn the back disk. Volvelleteer is a tool for making these given a table of text or numbers. If you are curious, check out Volvelleteer or check out our Kaleberg software page to see what other goodies we have lying around.

A volvelle in the making

Keywords: software, art, science, kale

01/23/12 - Some Chemistry Software

We've updated our ancient Period Table of the Elements - five downloads since 2006 - to include a simple chemical equation solver and balancer. If you know what this means, then this post is for you. If you actually might need such a thing, then this post is probably a godsend. So, assuming you are one in a billion, follow the link and take a look at the latest update from Kaleberg Labs.

Keywords: software, science, kale

12/11/11 - Christmas 2011 - Some Production Stills

The big Hollywood studios do this all the time. They always have a few photographers wandering the set to provide pictures for publicity purposes or for the DVD or BluRay extras. So, here are a few Kaleberg Studios production stills showing you what happens behind the scenes in the making of Christmas 2011.

Early on, the gaffers have set up the basic table wiring. This structures the entire spread.

We lay out of few set pieces - half and half cookies and the fruitcake - while horticultural takes a whack at those shrubs out front for wire hiding foliage.

As production moves along, we block out the table into the major Christmas food groups: desserts, savories and egg nog

Here's a shot of a lighting test with Godzilla in full welcoming glow

Another lighting test of the big tree and mantle drape

This looks simple, but it's actually a working model of a Jovian moon with an icy core, an outer snowy layer, space defense towers and a number of indigenous life forms.

Here's a final cosmetic check on the cassoulet.

Keywords: christmas, kale

12/04/11 - Christmas - Work in Progress

Christmas is underway Chez Kaleberg. Since we like to get the biggest tree we can, we hit the tree stands early. This means that the Christmas transformation is already underway. Here are some construction shots to give you an idea of this year's undertaking.

We've already made the cookies. We'll be decorating the gingerbread cookies for the small tree later today, but we already have a big pile of almond spritz cookies, and we've started putting them on the tree. These are strictly decorative. You can eat them, and they aren't awful, but they are a bit bland and not to everyone's taste. (How's that for being diplomatic?)

We also have the starwich cookies. We used to put these on the cookie tree, but then we'd snatch them off and eat them. They are now strictly for eating. They're basically almond shortbread cookies with raspberry jam and, if anything, they taste better than they look.

We'll post more pictures as the house gets decorated.

The big tree and boxes of ornaments

Starwich cookies - not long for this world

Almond spritz cookies - purely decorative

Some tree top detail with Pierrot presiding

The cookie tree in the early stages

Keywords: christmas, kale

11/13/11 - Port Angeles Farmers Market Report

The autumn market is here. There are potatoes, in red, brown and blue, squashes, pumpkins, celery, lacinato kale, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, baby turnips, bok choy, savoy cabbage and all of our fall favorites. The four stalwarts, Nash Huber, Westwind Farm, Johnston Farm and the Korean garlic lady are all there along with a number of other sellers.

It isn't just vegetables either. You can also buy beef, pork, lamb, cheese, salmon, halibut, steelhead, oysters, bread, and an array of seasonal mushrooms. If you search a bit, you can find a last few tomatoes, arugula, coriander and a few other hold outs, but the cold weather is coming.

Don't miss out on the prime of the harvest. Drop by the Port Angeles Farmers' Market this coming Saturday.







Keywords: autumn, farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters, port angeles, salmon, weather, westwind farm, garlic lady, kale

10/27/11 - We've Been Falling Down On The Job

We try and keep up to date on the Port Angeles Farmers' Market, but we've been awfully lazy about it as of late. This isn't because we haven't been shopping at the market. We've been there every Saturday, usually around ten when the market opens, and we've been buying a lot. The vegetables are out in full force, with brussels sprouts, garlic, collard greens and lacinato kale. There are winter squash and arugula and all sorts of wonderful things.

Maybe we just haven't been getting very good pictures. It's tricky taking pictures at the farmers' market. If nothing else, people are shopping for produce, and surely they have priority over a pushy photographer. In any event, here are a few pictures, a few good words, and we'll try to do better.

Nash Huber's stand is probably the easiest to photograph since everything is all bunched up nicely.

The Mystery Bay oyster stand is in operation.

This is what happens when we don't focus carefully. We can blur perfectly good Clark Family Farms beef.

Keywords: clark family, farmers' market, farms, nash huber, port angeles, shopping, winter, kale

10/07/11 - Signs of Christmas

While we were hiking on Hurricane Hill, we couldn't help but notice signs of the season. Yes, there was some autumn color, but when we Kalebergs say "season", we mean "Christmas season". So while the stores are still pushing Halloween candy, stage makeup and costumes, we Kalebergs are already leaping ahead to the real thing. We usually don't jump the gun like this, but there were the signs: the first snow and the brilliant red and green of the season.

Snow by the trail

Snow on the trees

Look, Christmas trees

and more Christmas trees

We've really got to start decorating.

There's the red and green.

Deck the trails.

OK, so this is a bit autumnal.

That might make a nice tree blanket.

Keywords: autumn, christmas, hurricane hill, trails, kale

09/25/11 - A Farmers' Market Recipe

Autumn has come to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. The tomatoes are passing, but pumpkins and other squashes are coming in, as are the potatoes, cabbages, chards and kales. We'll try for a more detailed report soon, but for now we'll offer a recipe for banh mi. There was a booth at the market offering samples made using Pan d'Amore sourdough bread and Clark Family beef along with a collection of other market vegetables.
NOTE As usual with our recipes, feel free to experiment.

This is an awful picture we took of the ingredients. We promise to take better pictures for our next market report.
INGREDIENTS FROM THE MARKET
  • 3 cups finely shredded cabbage
  • 1/2 cup finely shredded carrots
  • 1/3 cup thickly sliced green onions (including tops)
  • 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
  • 1/2 pound ground beef or pork, browned w/ salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 thick, light-textured baguette, cut into 4 sections
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
INGREDIENTS FROM ELSEWHERE
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
  • 8 teaspoons of garlic chili paste
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. In a bowl, mix cabbage & carrots with 1/4 cup rice vinegar, the salt, and sugar; let stand about 30 minutes.
  2. In a food processor or blender, combine remaining 1/4 cup rice vinegar with green onions, lime juice, ginger, garlic, and five-spice powder. Whirl until smooth
  3. Split baguette sections lengthwise almost all the way through, leaving halves attached at one side. Spread about 1 tsp. chili paste on 1 cut side of each. Add on top, then add cooked pork on cabbage mixture and cilantro leaves.

Keywords: autumn, clark family, farmers' market, port angeles, recipe, kale

08/23/11 - Hawaiian Luau

All the regulars were there for the 2011 Kaleberg Luau. The lau lau were front and center, flanked by our heavy on the turmeric Balinese chicken, and a plate load of ahi tuna sushi. The punch bowl was an ocean of Mai Tais, but the real favorites were the Test Pilots and Hells in the Pacific. There is nothing quite like a Hell in the Pacific served in a skull mug. We also had our traditional cupcake heiau, which is an important component of any true luau. One big favorite was the watermelon salad. It was a side dish, but so many people asked for the recipe, we'll include it in another post.

Test Pilots and Hells in the Pacific

This year's cupcake heiau

Lau lau in close up

Keywords: luau, kale

05/01/11 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is going green now that the weather is a bit more cooperative. There are lots of raabs. Those are just kales and cabbages and the like that have started to flower. They have a wonderful, slightly fuller and perhaps sweeter note than the unflowering vegetable. They're great sliced thinly as the base for salads or sauteed.

Johnston Farm was only present by proxy. This time Westwind Farm had their salad mix, and a welcome sight they were. Westwind is also selling kale and cabbage raab along with those sure signs of spring, rhubarb and nettles. Yes, they're awfully late this year. Late too are the asparagus. Usually we've been living on Westwind Farm asparagus for weeks now, but not this year. We haven't seen a spear. Hope springs eternal and all that.

Westwind raab and rhubarb

Westwind was selling Johnston Farm salad mix.

Raabs and more at Nash's stand

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, port angeles, spring, westwind farm, kale

04/13/11 - Farmers' Market Update

Last year was not a bumper harvest year on the North Olympic Peninsula, and this spring is not shaping up well. Things, particularly vegetables, are, however, getting better. For example, there were cauliflower and salmon and nettles and kale raab. There is a lot more green than there was a few weeks ago, and that means progress.

Renaissance sells all kinds of cheese.

Our go to source for garlic and scallions.

Nash Huber has cauliflower!

Keywords: farmers' market, nash huber, spring, salmon, kale

01/17/11 - Panoramas and the iPod Touch

We've been playing with a program called Panorama 360 which runs on the iPod Touch. While the iPod Touch is ostensibly an iPhone without the phone, it does have a camera and an accelerometer in it. This means that when you take a picture, the device can tell which way you are pointing the camera. If you take a series of pictures while pointing in different directions, it can paste them together to form a panorama. This isn't the first time anyone did this sort of thing. Mike Neimark built a simlar rig back in the late 70s, but it makes for a delightful new way of taking photographs.

These aren't like the panoramas we've taken before. Those were of much higher quality and stitched together using Adobe Photoshop. The iPod Touch has a cell phone camera, and not a very good one. It doesn't work very well in low light situations, such as one finds in a rain forest. The Panorama 360 program builds the picture while one watches it, so one can see the panorama grow and move the camera to capture more of the scene. The sensor in the camera isn't very good, and, let's face it, the human hand is no substitute for a proper tripod.

Despite all the problems, the panoramic photographs produce are atmospheric. They capture the light, colors and sense of the place surprisingly well. The first photographs were fuzzy, peculiar images, so strange that they inspired the Impressionists to rethink how one represents the world on canvas. These images are fuzzy and, perhaps, peculiar, but with digital cameras adding pixels and improving technically day by day, they offer an alternate way of capturing our world.

Taken from the Olympic Discovery Trail at the west end of the dike

The deli display at De Laurenti in Pike's Place Market

More goodies at De Laurenti, quite distorted because Panorama assumes a circular scan, not a linear one

Along the Lake Angeles Trail

Trying to capture the clearing caused by that great windfall some years back

The little bridge and water

Another view from along the trail

Keywords: panoramas, lake angeles, kale

12/21/10 - Christmas Party

We held our big people's Christmas party, and the place was magical. Of course, it didn't look so magical with the flash, so we took shakey time exposure shots without a tripod. Magical means blurry in this context. Still, the party was kind of magical.

Our Godzilla Christmas angel was aglow with atomic fire. Our cookie tree aglow with candles, and our guests aglow with choucroute garnie, bourbon sodden fruitcake, brie en croute with cranberry chutney and, of course, our thermonuclear egg nog. It's the same recipe we use for Godzilla's atomic fire.

Yet another magical, i.e. blurry, Kaleberg Christmas.

A blurry shot of the cookie tree

A blurry shot of our party spread

Our Christmas tree lies in wait.

Keywords: christmas, recipe, kale

12/03/10 - Duck Confit

We just finished the last of our first duck confit of the season. That's how far behind this web log is. We preserved four ducks in their own fat and ate every last scrap. We even used up all the fat frying potatoes and the like. All that is left is this picture.

Duck confit, duck fat fried potatoes and lacinato kale salad

Keywords: ducks, food, kale

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